Groups and Single Decorations for Gallantry
We were still unclear as to exactly where the enemy were, or how many of them there were. Because it was broad daylight, the muzzle flashes were much less vivid, but we were seeing clouds of dust come up as people ran about. However, we couldn’t just fire willy nilly into those clouds because this is a village and there are innocent people and even kids about. So we would try to work out where the rounds were coming from, then scan the area through our rifle sights and, if we saw someone armed, we would then fire back. We’d also move around ourselves, trying to draw their fire so that we could observe or hear where it was coming from. Eventually we fought our way over to the river. Many of the rivers in this part of Iraq have raised banks to prevent flooding, so that offered us some cover. There were cracks in the mud eroded by the weather or high water, and I got myself in one of them and located four positions on the opposite side of the river.
There was a bridge across to my left, about 100 metres away. It was raised up 15ft or so over the water, and a heavy machine gun - a Dushka, I think - was set up underneath there. It was firing diagonally towards us and our camp. There were three guys at that position and a pick-up truck parked close by. On the bridge itself was one guy with an AK47, lying behind a small mound of earth. There was another guy 30 metres to his right and a fourth one further down the river bank. They were on raised ground in good positions. I identified all the targets to my four guys and we started suppressing them. The idea is that you kill them if you can, but if you can’t you put enough rounds down on them that you either scare them away or keep their heads down while someone else can get close enough to kill them.’
As the KOSB soldiers began suppressive fire, the insurgents with small arms closed up, with two men now on the bridge and one just to the side, leaving two positions. Cpl. Jardine allocated three of his soldiers to suppress these, and then assessed the situation. The enemy were in well-prepared positions and were proving very hard to hit. If his men stayed where they were, they risked other enemy forces potentially outflanking them and assaulting them from the rear. Retreat was not an option. He decided he had to get across the bridge.
‘Myself and Pte. John Clark, now L. Cpl. Clark, got up on top of the ridge and started running along to the bridge. We were very exposed at that point but that was the only way onto it. As we got up there, another group opened up on us from a large military building further north but on the same side of the river as we were on. They were 200 metres away, we estimated there were 15 to 20 weapons involved and they were accurate - the rounds started landing around our feet, in amongst the pair of us. I grabbed John and we slid back down the steep bank and crawled over to a pile of rubble for cover. I poked my head up and had a look and saw there were loads of people in this building firing at us. I got on the radio to the platoon commander and said, “We need some support here... we’re getting contact from this military building in the north... I suggest you move on to Route Six and cover us from the school.” There was a school building which looked directly into this new insurgent position. So Cpl. Tony Currie and L. Cpl. Chris Potts deployed a few privates to this building and started suppressing them. Meanwhile, John Clark was using his Minimi on them. The other guys were still suppressing the original three positions - there was a lot of gunfire going off all around. Once Tony Currie’s team were in position, they took over suppressing the building and I started thinking about getting back up on top of the bank and trying to get onto the bridge. It was one of those moments when you just have to do it. No-one else was able to get across there, so it had to be me.
I was probably half scared to death but, to be honest, I can’t remember how I felt. I just knew that something had to be done. Around this time, a white pick-up truck moved up towards us, had a look and then turned and drove away. I kind of saw it out of the corner of my eye, but well enough to see that there were armed men inside. They could have been the local police - who we thought we could trust - but they could also have been more insurgents, so they forced my hand. As soon as I saw it I thought I’ve got to do something now just in case.
I left John with the Minimi to cover my rear. The Minimi is quite inaccurate if you’re trying to fire it on the move anyway, and it offers a lot of fire support - 5.56 belted, up to 1000 rounds a minute with a range of 800 metres. So he was better employed where he was; if the vehicle came back, or the guys in the building had another go at me, he’d give me a chance.’
Corporal Jardine’s citation explains what happens next: he charged three men who were firing automatic weapons at him. “Despite intense and accurate heavy machine gun fire, he assaulted the first position alone, killing two of the enemy and capturing their weapons. The third enemy fled. Jardine then proceeded to suppress the depth machine gun position, whilst calling forward the remainder of his own Team to join him. At this point a third enemy position was identified to him. Jardine’s team located this position and proceeded to lay fire down on both positions, allowing the remainder of the multiple to move forward. At this point the enemy disengaged from the action and withdrew.”
‘I got back up there and just ran as quick as I could until I got to the bridge. The lads doing the suppressing were brilliant, they kept the enemy down until I actually got on there. I started running across the bridge and they had seen me immediately. They were lying down, prone position, and firing at me as I ran; I saw their fingers on the triggers, then the muzzle flashes and then I could hear the rounds zipping past. I remember thinking, Why are they not hitting me? But they were firing on automatic and while the AK is a good weapon it is quite inaccurate. Luckily. Obviously, I was moving as well, which made their job harder.
I’m a reasonable shot, but the sight system on the SA80 is such that, at that range... well, you could miss, but you’d almost have to be trying to. I just aimed at the body and in both cases my rounds went into the chest, under the arm, and came out the back of the neck. Both guys were instantly dead. I didn’t see what happened to the third guy, but apparently he ran away and vanished behind some mud huts. I did see the truck that was next to the machine gun drive away. It hit the road and just kept going, and we were on foot so we couldn’t chase them to make an arrest.
The truck was still in range, but the fact that it had disengaged meant that we couldn’t fire upon it. It was frustrating, of course; they can drive away, come back the next day and kill five of your mates. But I can understand the reasons for the rules. Everything was done with the aim of minimising death or injury to anyone. We would never fire unless fired on first. I think it spoke volumes for our discipline.
I moved back across the river, and Chris Potts was firing UGL grenades into the military building, because they were still engaging us. Obviously we needed to clear it. One of the Scimitar armoured fighting vehicles came up and we parked it in the middle of the waste ground observing the back exit. But while we doing that they must have extracted because when we actually went to clear through there was no-one left. There was a lot of blood, but no bodies or weapons - they had obviously taken them with them. We recovered the bodies of the two men I’d killed, together with their weapons. You can’t just leave bodies in the middle of the desert. You have got to pick them up and deal with them... I’d done what needed to be done when I shot those blokes. It was either them or one of us, probably me, so it never bothered me. Even now, while its not something I like to ponder over, I think I made the right decision...
Once we came back from TELIC 2, we moved straight across to Northern Ireland and I was told I had to go back and see the CO. I thought, Oh no what have I done? It turned out that he told me I was getting an award for my actions... I’m very proud to get it but John Clark and Chris Potts and all the other guys in the team played their parts... I feel that everyone should have been recognised in some way... if it wasn’t for them, who knows what would have happened.’
Jardine was invested with his C.G.C. by H.M. The Queen at Buckingham Palace on 29 October 2004.
Following his time in the 1st King’s Own Scottish Borderers, Jardine served for a time as an Infantry Instructor at the Infantry Training Centre Catterick and he spent the majority of his career serving with the Highlanders, 4th Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland. Throughout his service he was deployed on Operations in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan and he took part in major overseas exercises in the Falkland Islands, Cyprus, Jordan, Kenya, Canada and Germany. Most recently he was employed as the Senior Permanent Staff Officer Instructor at Glasgow & Strathclyde Universities’ Officer Training Corps. He was awarded the Long Service & Good Conduct Medal in 2016 and left the Army in 2021 in the rank of Warrant Officer Class 2 after completing 23 years of loyal and dedicated service.
www.dnw.co.uk all lots are illustrated on our website and are subject to buyers’ premium at 24% (+VAT where applicable)
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168
